Fraud Trends

By
Catherine Tong, Vice President & General Manager, Accertify EMEA
August 28, 2015

Share:

Merchants need to be more diligent than ever at distinguishing good from bad transactions.

Never has understanding the route of your web transactions been more important - or more interesting! The IP and device data that forms an integral part of a web transaction can hold the key to identifying fraudsters. The lazy and less experienced fraudsters are unlikely to manipulate their settings, but even the more cunning may miss some key points. You don’t have to be a technical genius to benefit from IP and device data. Many of us already use "proxy" as a suspicious flag. But we know this is not a silver bullet.

Other useful data points include the "Reg Org Code," which shows the entity responsible for the actions and content associated with a given block of IP addresses, and the "Second Level Domain," which identifies the domain name. Being able to permanently identify a device and leverage this additional data element through fraud screening will also allow you to note cross patterns of fraudster behaviors. Adding suspicious data points to your negative tables and investigating names you do not recognize can be invaluable, as this information will often tell you a very dark story of botnets and honeypots, and maybe even spamming unsuspecting customers.

Fraud is innovating. Encourage your teams to do the same. Let them hone the investigation skills and research new tools and ways to spot the latest trends. It helps to not only keep up with the bad guys but also keep your team engaged and alert to their ever changing environment.